A guide for teens and young adults on the power of creative journaling and its role in enhancing self-discovery and self-awareness • Provides encouragement for creative writing, self-expression, and self-dialogue • Includes journaling exercises to inspire creativity and cultivate self-esteem • By the author of Teen Psychic and The Thundering Years, winner of the 2002 Independent Publisher Book Award for multicultural juvenile nonfiction Most teens and young adults search for ways to express their individuality and to discover who they are, without being judged. In Spiritual Journaling Julie Tallard Johnson shows that journaling is an informative and supportive outlet for the joys, frustrations, and questions that arise for those making the transition toward their own independent ideas and lives--and a powerful tool for awakening creative potential. Johnson encourages young people to discover their own unique voices by offering guidance on writing and other forms of self-expression and self-dialogue and on learning how to listen to inner wisdom. As readers move through the book and write in their own personal journals, they gain insight about themselves--knowledge reflected in their own words and the writing of other young people included in the book. The journaling tools provided include meditations, consulting oracles, writing poetry, visualizations, writing rituals, and problem solving around spiritual questions.

A practical guide to stop searching for meaning by creating meaning from within • Explains how we can only discover who we are by naming what we want to be and taking steps to make it a reality • Offers simple evidence-based methods to generate enthusiasm, creativity, and direct spiritual experience and to co-create with the natural world as our ancestors did • Presents 11 core principles for living life from within, such as how to take full responsibility for motivation and effort, express gratitude, and focus your intention Everyone wants to experience purpose and inspiration in their lives, but the search for meaning often leaves a seeker in the hands of fate. Offering a different approach to self-discovery, one where we create our meaning from within rather than seek it from the outside world, Julie Tallard Johnson shows there is a science behind personal spiritual experiences and creativity. She reveals simple evidence-based methods that can be applied to any situation to generate enthusiasm, inspiration, and direct spiritual experience and transform the inner and outer landscapes of your life. Drawing from the Heart Sutra, the I Ching, indigenous wisdom, and the teachings of the Dalai Lama, Joseph Campbell, and the Kadampa master Atisha, Johnson outlines a practice centered on what she calls the Zero Point Agreement--the realization that you are the zero point of your life, that life’s purpose comes from within. She explains how to discover who you truly are by naming what you want to be and taking steps to make it a reality. Providing 11 core principles for the Zero Point Agreement as well as thought exercises, meditations, and journaling practices, Johnson shows how to break free from negative habitual states, liberate yourself from your attachment to the behaviors of others, take full responsibility for motivation and effort, express gratitude, focus your intention, and learn to co-create with the natural world. She also explores how to transform repressed material and how to apply the Zero Point Agreement to heal both personal and global relationships. Revealing how we can tap in to the creative, creational power that lies within and around each of us, Johnson offers a spiritual technology for self-illumination, creative restructuring of your life, and manifestation of your life’s purpose.

Nancy Tatom Ammerman examines the stories Americans tell of their everyday lives, from dinner table to office and shopping mall to doctor's office, about the things that matter most to them and the routines they take for granted, and the times and places where the everyday and ordinary meet the spiritual. In addition to interviews and observation, Ammerman bases her findings on a photo elicitation exercise and oral diaries, offering a window into the presence and absence of religion and spirituality in ordinary lives and in ordinary physical and social spaces. The stories come from a diverse array of ninety-five Americans -- both conservative and liberal white Protestants, African American Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Mormons, Wiccans, and people who claim no religious or spiritual proclivities -- across a range that stretches from committed religious believers to the spiritually neutral. Ammerman surveys how these people talk about what spirituality is, how they seek and find experiences they deem spiritual, and whether and how religious traditions and institutions are part of their spiritual lives.

A guide to personal spiritual initiation through the transformation of habitual patterns, apathy, and resistance • Based on the Native American medicine wheel, the Vedic wheel, and the universal initiatory mandala • Enables readers from any tradition to initiate themselves through practices of thought transformation, narrative medicine, meditation exercises, rituals, and journaling • Facilitates breaking through personal and societal illusions that perpetuate resistance and apathy Intentions and spiritual principles, meditation and contemplation, ritual, and risk-taking are the conditions that comprise an initiated life. Regrettably, in modern society we do not have rites of initiation that break through the personal and societal illusions that instill and perpetuate negative habits that keep us in states of resistance. Lacking initiation practices, we often remain trapped in ways of being in the world that were formed by our past conditions and attachments. We tend to identify too strongly with the status quo, which must be challenged to prevent stagnation and to encourage happiness and authenticity. Julie Tallard Johnson shows how to become initiated into an authentic life through practices of thought transformation, cultivating attention, journaling, storytelling, and rituals found in the four directions of the universal mandala. She begins the Wheel of Initiation in the South, where initiates set their intentions; then moves into the West, where they free themselves from habitual patterns and core beliefs; then into the North, the direction of cultivating attention and unity; and finishes in the East, the direction of regeneration and initiation. Drawing upon the life experiences of those who have successfully navigated the wheel, Johnson demonstrates that once fears, assumptions, and ingrained beliefs are confronted and transformed, initiates emerge ready to reenter society with renewed energy and vision that will enrich their own lives and their communities.

HOW TO THRILL, CHILL, & GET AWAY FROM IT ALL WITHOUT ALCOHOL OR OTHER DRUGS....Getting high is fun. It's natural and healthy. It feels great to get a rush, see the world a little differently, alter our consciousness, and take a break from our everyday lives. Unfortunately, by the time we're older, it may seem like the only way to get high is with alcohol or other drugs. Which is why, when it comes to highs, you're likely to hear ''Just Say NO.'' Read this book and you won't need artificial highs. You won't want them. You won't have time for them. You'll find so many ways to get high naturally that you'll never be able to try them all. Here are highs that will thrill you ... and highs that will soothe you. Highs that will take you deep inside yourself ... and waaaay outside. Highs that will change you forever without leaving you dull, burned out, or hung over. Look inside for more than 150 creative, playful, legal, healthy highs. Plus interesting facts, cool quotes, and survey results from teens who shared their favorite ways to relieve stress and escape reality. All served up Alex J. Packer style - witty, wise, and often hilarious. Because laughter is one of the best highs of all.

Journaling for Joy enables you to take a close look at who you are and what you want. In an original approach to journaling, Joyce Chapman guides you to write from your heart and soul with the aim of arriving at joy - the joy that comes from knowing yourself as an intimate friend and living the life you have created out of conscious choice. The innovative techniques in Journaling for Joy will show you how to: * Capture the meaning and joy in your daily life. * Discover your patterns and ways to change them. * Understand your relationships with others. * Access the wisdom and creativity of your imagination. * Awaken the writer's voice within you. * Actualize your dreams and visions. *Journaling for Joy is filled with over 200 dynamic journaling techniques

This book shows how modern European Languages have a large number of metaphors which represent the whole of nature. Metaphors used in natural science and literature, such as Mother Nature, have a powerful influence on the framing of scientific hypothesis making, and these words have guided the history of natural science for several millennia, while also influencing North American nature writing.

This Prayer Journal is designed to help you develop a more intimate relationship with our loving heavenly Father, through spiritual prompts which encourage prayers of comfort, courage, and hope. Each page presents thoughtful questions to stimulate reflective thinking and writing about your spiritual communion with God. Use this journal to write every day, at approximately the same time, with passion, honesty, and the intention of speaking with and listening to the voice within. "Small Me, Big God" is a portable sacred sanctuary to record our spiritual journey, find our ground, create and clarify our goals, and bear witness to our own evolution. With over 70 beautiful pages of spiritually guided prompts, and plenty of space to write, and reflect, this journaling adventure guides us into our highest ways of living Attractively designed and made of the highest quality materials, this finely crafted journal in 8.5x11 size offers plenty of lined space to write, as you focus your mind on living God's plan today.